Texas State students vote to impeach student body president
AUSTIN, Texas - After weeks of students at Texas State University calling for the resignation of their student body president, student government officials voted to impeach him.
For the last four months, the bitter battle over Texas State’s student body president has led to rallies, petitions and sit ins.
“It was always a symbol of saying that we don’t accept intolerance and white supremacy at all at our campus,” said Claudia Gasponi, a Texas State student senator.
Students said student body president Connor Clegg made racially insensitive comments on social media and threatened to defund the student run paper after a student published an op-ed about white privilege.
“There’s others things Connor has done that has not been representative of the student body and has really damaged the reputation of Texas State and really damaged students’ trust of the student government and student body president,” Gasponi said.
“That post that I made in 2014 was reprehensible and I apologized for it, but, frankly, you don’t believe in the mission of this institution if you don’t believe that someone can grow after four years of being here. This school has taught me so much about what it means to be culturally sensitive and accountable and I will always be very grateful to this school for making me a better person,” Connor Clegg said.
Thousands of students petitioned to have Clegg removed from office. However, The Student Body Supreme Court voted not to impeach Clegg. The Dean of Students overturned that ruling and called for a trial. That trial would’ve been held Wednesday, but only 21 of the 40 student government members showed up. Two thirds of the student body government have to be present to hold a trial.
“I would expect for anybody who holds a position to be present and to take care of whatever the business of the day is,” said Dr. Joanne Smith, Vice President of Student Affairs at Texas State.
Monday, with almost all student government members in attendance, Texas State students tried one more time to oust Clegg just days before the end of his term.
In order to impeach Clegg, he had to be found guilty of at least one article of impeachment.
He was found guilty of six.